I write a lot about automating repetitive computer tasks, but most of my history with automation has involved using AppleScript (and later, Automator) to control applications. The fact is, many Mac apps—and more every day!—aren’t really accessible via scripting interfaces. It’s been a black hole of automation for me, a no-go zone, but a little while ago I decided I was wasting time with some of the tasks I perform every week and I was going to dive in and take control of the situation, scripting be damned.

My tool of choice was Keyboard Maestro, which I bought to remap a bunch of keystrokes for my weird clicky keyboard. It’s an impossibly powerful utility that, among other things, lets you automate user-interface actions.

I love posts like this. There are so many things you do over and over, which end up taking up a lot of time. Thankfully there are increasingly more ways to automate all those tasks.